JP Maroney offered me his Authority Institute 12-month "Authority 500 Mastermind & Media Mavens" program for $25K. It was 12 high-value article placements (roughly 1 per month) in which I was to be included or quoted in publications such as Forbes and Entrepreneur. I was also to get 12 months of mastermind and group coaching, plus access to a growing vault of tools, training, materials. The idea of the program was to build up my Google rankings by having these articles and my name appear in Google search results.
JP Maroney originally told me the program was $20K, but then came back and said it was $25K. That should have been my first clue that this racket was some type of rip-off or sham. Payment terms were $20K initially, then $5K 30-40 days later. I paid the $25K total.
Once I paid, I heard nothing for several days. This was yet another early sign of a crooked deal or con game. I contacted JP to tell him no one from his program reached out to me. He said someone would be in touch. Not a good feeling – I even told him this feels like there’s such a hurry for me to pay, yet the time for the service to actually start is slow, like cold molasses. (What I really felt, but didn’t say, is that he wanted to make this deal such a fast one when it came to me paying him, then basically take his time on the hustle with me when it came to actually delivering the service). He assured me someone would be in touch. After several more days, someone was, and we began the program.
The 1st article was published on 7/30. It was a blog article with JP Maroney’s byline on HuffingtonPost.com. I wasn’t overly impressed. I didn’t care for JP Maroney’s byline; I thought these articles would be written by staff writers at the various publications. More importantly, the article didn’t link back to any regular page on my web site. It linked back to some random page that wasn’t even a public page that people could navigate to. For the money I paid, I would think JP Maroney or someone on his team would make sure the article linked to my home page or my “about me” page. Five months later, when I Google my name and “Huffington Post” the article does not come up in the search results.
I received mastermind coaching nearly every week, until the day when the very good, highly-effective, quite professional coach essentially fired me. He said it in an extremely nice way, but the bottom line was he wasn’t being paid; therefore, he could no longer devote the time to coaching me. He asked me if I had heard anything from JP – I had not. He said he hadn’t either, for at least several weeks. He shared with me that JP hadn’t paid him for his coaching of me, and that he (the coach) had personally paid for my Huffington Post article to be placed. There was a 2nd article in the works, and the coach had paid for that as well. That was an arrangement that he said simply couldn’t continue. I completely and totally understood. I remain in good relationship with the coach today.
At the same time the coach was firing me, JP emailed me to ask if he and I can talk. We schedule that conversation. He laid out a whole plan for articles coming in Feb, Mar, April and beyond. This conversation was in November. I felt he was giving me a snow job, and I wasn’t interested in falling (yet again) for his sucker game and whatever deception came along with it. I said thank you, but at this point it doesn’t seem to be working out. It’s taking a long time. The schedule you’re presenting will take even longer, and I’d prefer a refund.
His email to me later that same day and said, “Confirming that I'll clarify from {the coach} exactly how many articles are published, how many in the process to be published. We'll be issuing a refund for the balance.” That actually struck me as a little too easy. It sounded like more of a con game, and I suspected he would somehow move money in a bit of a shell game from something else (probably shady) that he had going on from someone else he had probably cheated.
I calculated the numbers. I was to pay for 2 articles out of the 12 promised, and be refunded for the rest. I wrote that in an email to JP. I emailed JP to request a refund of $20,833 by 12/15/16, with my bank wire instructions. JP’s email response was “sounds like a plan.” On 12/14/16 I emailed a reminder to him. On the appointed date at nearly 7 pm I texted JP to say there was no wire, and please let me know if there was an issue. The next day he texted back, “Will be sending. I’ll email details.” Then, nothing since.
JP Maroney is sitting on $25K of my money, for which I have seen 1 article, and I was promised (by the coach, not by JP) that the 2nd article is coming. That’s a crooked deal with little to show for what I have paid, and I don’t appreciate being in the position of chasing down someone to get money back for a service that absolutely wasn’t provided. That’s a rip-off and a scam, and JP Maroney’s business practices are definitely characterized as cheating and unscrupulous.
Harbor City Holdings, LLC Reviews
JP Maroney offered me his Authority Institute 12-month "Authority 500 Mastermind & Media Mavens" program for $25K. It was 12 high-value article placements (roughly 1 per month) in which I was to be included or quoted in publications such as Forbes and Entrepreneur. I was also to get 12 months of mastermind and group coaching, plus access to a growing vault of tools, training, materials. The idea of the program was to build up my Google rankings by having these articles and my name appear in Google search results.
JP Maroney originally told me the program was $20K, but then came back and said it was $25K. That should have been my first clue that this racket was some type of rip-off or sham. Payment terms were $20K initially, then $5K 30-40 days later. I paid the $25K total.
Once I paid, I heard nothing for several days. This was yet another early sign of a crooked deal or con game. I contacted JP to tell him no one from his program reached out to me. He said someone would be in touch. Not a good feeling – I even told him this feels like there’s such a hurry for me to pay, yet the time for the service to actually start is slow, like cold molasses. (What I really felt, but didn’t say, is that he wanted to make this deal such a fast one when it came to me paying him, then basically take his time on the hustle with me when it came to actually delivering the service). He assured me someone would be in touch. After several more days, someone was, and we began the program.
The 1st article was published on 7/30. It was a blog article with JP Maroney’s byline on HuffingtonPost.com. I wasn’t overly impressed. I didn’t care for JP Maroney’s byline; I thought these articles would be written by staff writers at the various publications. More importantly, the article didn’t link back to any regular page on my web site. It linked back to some random page that wasn’t even a public page that people could navigate to. For the money I paid, I would think JP Maroney or someone on his team would make sure the article linked to my home page or my “about me” page. Five months later, when I Google my name and “Huffington Post” the article does not come up in the search results.
I received mastermind coaching nearly every week, until the day when the very good, highly-effective, quite professional coach essentially fired me. He said it in an extremely nice way, but the bottom line was he wasn’t being paid; therefore, he could no longer devote the time to coaching me. He asked me if I had heard anything from JP – I had not. He said he hadn’t either, for at least several weeks. He shared with me that JP hadn’t paid him for his coaching of me, and that he (the coach) had personally paid for my Huffington Post article to be placed. There was a 2nd article in the works, and the coach had paid for that as well. That was an arrangement that he said simply couldn’t continue. I completely and totally understood. I remain in good relationship with the coach today.
At the same time the coach was firing me, JP emailed me to ask if he and I can talk. We schedule that conversation. He laid out a whole plan for articles coming in Feb, Mar, April and beyond. This conversation was in November. I felt he was giving me a snow job, and I wasn’t interested in falling (yet again) for his sucker game and whatever deception came along with it. I said thank you, but at this point it doesn’t seem to be working out. It’s taking a long time. The schedule you’re presenting will take even longer, and I’d prefer a refund.
His email to me later that same day and said, “Confirming that I'll clarify from {the coach} exactly how many articles are published, how many in the process to be published. We'll be issuing a refund for the balance.” That actually struck me as a little too easy. It sounded like more of a con game, and I suspected he would somehow move money in a bit of a shell game from something else (probably shady) that he had going on from someone else he had probably cheated.
I calculated the numbers. I was to pay for 2 articles out of the 12 promised, and be refunded for the rest. I wrote that in an email to JP. I emailed JP to request a refund of $20,833 by 12/15/16, with my bank wire instructions. JP’s email response was “sounds like a plan.” On 12/14/16 I emailed a reminder to him. On the appointed date at nearly 7 pm I texted JP to say there was no wire, and please let me know if there was an issue. The next day he texted back, “Will be sending. I’ll email details.” Then, nothing since.
JP Maroney is sitting on $25K of my money, for which I have seen 1 article, and I was promised (by the coach, not by JP) that the 2nd article is coming. That’s a crooked deal with little to show for what I have paid, and I don’t appreciate being in the position of chasing down someone to get money back for a service that absolutely wasn’t provided. That’s a rip-off and a scam, and JP Maroney’s business practices are definitely characterized as cheating and unscrupulous.